The present invention relates generally to the field of document production and mailing systems and deals more particularly with a document and envelope matching printing system, more specifically with the creation of Information-Based Indicia Program (IBIP) indicia with specialized printers in a document and envelope matching printing system, such as the Pitney Bowes DocuMatch printing system.
The challenges of mail delivery within the United States and in the growing ranks of industrialized countries has grown so that in the United States alone, the postal service delivers upwards of 900 million pieces of mail per day. Added to the growing postal burden are the requirements of keeping address data accurate and readable by both mail handling machines and the mail carriers that physically deliver the mail. With the need to reduce costs while improving the efficiency and reliability of postal operations, continuous review of the methodology and the systems used to implement operations is required. Thus, the growing burden of delivering mail efficiently results in the development of regulations by the United States Postal Service (USPS) that are designed to take the best possible advantage of the technology available for mail handling.
Among the changes and requirements instituted by the United States Postal Service is the Information-Based Indicia Program (IBIP). Companies, such as the present assignee, are developing and introducing new document printing and handling systems that comply with the IBIP standards and criteria set by the USPS. As printing, post-processing and mailing technologies have become more sophisticated, separate processes for document preparation and distribution have emerged, particularly in high speed, high volume document production and mailing systems. New printing technology has introduced new standards and new print languages to accommodate complex printing functions. Mail finishing requirements, such as bar codes and different coding methodologies, have become more data dependent; for example, encoding destination identification. Sorting and inclusion of targeted marketing documents, information and precisional communication documents have further increased the complexity of document production and mailing systems. Companies that generate such mail on a regular basis typically need to change their specific applications each time the postal regulations change and also change the data format to accommodate newer technology printers. Applicant""s print stream processing technology, generally known by the trademark Stream Weaver(copyright), substantially eliminates the need to modify existing applications to accommodate the changes in postal regulations and to accommodate newer printing technologies by addressing the changes further downstream in the document preparation cycle. Generally, however, the documents and addresses are generated by legacy or application-specific programs designed to operate with the document production system.
The advent of personal computers and high-quality printers has led to a number of third-party word processing application programs that have the capability to generate an addressed, matched mailing wherein the document is matched with the envelope address using the mail merge capabilities of the application. PC applications such as Microsoft(copyright) Word(copyright) generate mail using printer-generated indicia on commercially available printers. It would be desirable to use such third party applications in document and envelope matching printing systems, such as the DocuMatch printing system, for example, produced by applicant without programmatically altering the third party application to accommodate the printer drivers of the printing system.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide for a method and apparatus for printing Information-Based Indicia Program (IBIP) indicia in a document and envelope matching printing system using the mail merge capabilities of a third-party application.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide for a method and apparatus for verifying and correcting postage to produce an IBIP indicia when a valid address is created.
It is a yet further object of the present invention to provide for a method and apparatus for inserting documents into an envelope and printing an IBIP postage and address on the mailpiece.
The present invention substantially obviates, if not entirely eliminates, the disadvantages of utilizing a third-party word processing application having mail merge capabilities in a document and envelope matching printing system by extending IBIP indicia generation to specialized printers used in such systems.
The first aspect of the present invention is a method for printing an IBIP indicia to a mailpiece in a mailing system for creating at least one mailpiece. The method comprises the steps of: initiating a user application for producing the mailpieces, wherein the user application processes a set of documents having one or more addresses contained therein; printing the documents to a printer driver as a print stream; determining which information contained within each one of the documents is textual information and which information is control code information; removing the control code information from the document; sending the textual information to a print stream processor module which parses the address from the textual information and sends the textual information to a document printer, and sends the parsed address to an address correction/coder component to assure that a valid address has been processed; determining that each one of the addresses is valid, and if the address is not valid, then correcting the address to make it valid; and sending the valid address to an IBIP indicia generator to create an indicia image and an address image to be printed on the mailpiece.
The second aspect of the present invention is apparatus in a mailing system for creating and printing an IBIP indicia to a mailpiece. The system comprises: means for producing a user application having one or more mailpieces, wherein the user application processes a set of one or more documents having one or more addresses contained therein; means for printing the documents to a printer driver as a print stream; means for determining which information contained within each one of the documents is textual information and which information is control code information; a print stream processor module for parsing the addresses from the textual information and for sending the textual information to a document printer and for sending the parsed address to an address correction/coder component means to assure that a valid address has been processed; means for determining that each one of the addresses is valid, and for correcting the address if said address is not valid to make it valid; and IBIP indicia generator means for creating an indicia image and an address image to be printed on said mailpiece in response to receipt of a valid address.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from an understanding of the following detailed description of presently preferred embodiments of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.